Reference News, March 3 report. According to the website of Singapore's Straits Times, on March 1, German Chancellor Merkel visited Chinese tech companies during her visit to China and publicly praised China's productivity in a speech at home, stating that compared with China, Germany has already lost its competitiveness and therefore needs to work harder.
According to reports from Reuters and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Merkel made the above remarks during a Christian Democratic Union campaign event held on February 27 in the small town of Volkmarsten in Hesse, Germany.
Merkel stated directly that Germany's competitiveness had indeed fallen short. She told voters that everyone believes they have done enough, which is indeed the case. Merkel said: "But ladies and gentlemen, when you just come back from China, you will clearly feel that so-called 'work-life balance' and a four-day workweek cannot maintain the long-term prosperity of our country."
Merkel also frankly said: "We do indeed need to put in more effort now."
Merkel arrived in China on February 25 for a two-day official visit, which was her first visit to China since taking office in May last year. A business delegation of 30 German companies, including Bayer, Siemens, and Mercedes-Benz, accompanied her.
Merkel visited the Forbidden City in Beijing, then went to the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz China, where she test drove the new S-class car. She later went to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and visited the Chinese robot company Yushu Technology and the German company Siemens Energy.
With the continuous rise of China's industrial strength in recent years, especially the rapid development of the electric vehicle industry, the sense of crisis of the old industrial power Germany has been increasing day by day, and there are divisions in the attitude of the German political and business circles towards China.
Before departing for China, Merkel had stated that China has become a major world power, and Germany's policy toward China must take this into account. Without Beijing's participation, major international political issues cannot be resolved. Therefore, she emphasized that decoupling from China is wrong, as it would hinder Germany's own economic opportunities, and Germany and China should work together to address global challenges.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7612982606501659162/
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